Is gentleness just allowing yourself to be walked on, passively accepting injustice and powerlessness? Absolutely not. In this sermon, Catherine Evans-Smith shows us how if we follow the way of Jesus, we find a gentleness that is restrained power for the sake of both justice and mercy.
If you want friendships that go deeper than a fun night out, a marriage that will stand the test of time, or just to get to the end of life with joy and gratitude, then you’ll need to learn faithfulness. In this sermon we learn from God what that looks like and how we can become more faithful people.
What is kindness? Well, you probably already know what that looks like. But what is the ultimate act of kindness, and where do see that in real life? Pastor Bernard takes us on a journey with Philemon and Onesimus to show us what kindness at its best really means.
How do you become a patient person with yourself and with others? In this sermon, we explore wisdom from the book of James to learn how to become the patient people we want to be, but don’t often have the patience to become.
We are in desperate need of peace in our world. But what does real peace between people look like? How can we have peace with each other, within ourselves and with God? Pastor Kyle shares some thoughts from an ancient controversy in the church.
We all want to live a life full of joy. But where does true joy come from? How is it different from mere happiness? And how can you experience joy in every situation? Pastor Bernard dives into the second fruit of the Spirit to find out.
Pastor Kyle shares about the fruit of the Spirit of Love…the goal of most of our lives and the culmination of a connection to God.
In this final sermon on our identity statement, how can a church "display the beauty of God's story"? Pastor Bernard dives into Acts chapter 3 to find out how we can be bold enough to say, like Peter and John, "Look at us" and you'll see the power of the risen Jesus.
What does it look like for a church to be woven into the fabric of a city? What does it look like for you, whether you are a local or a transplant, to be woven into the fabric of Oakland? In this sermon, Lead Pastor Bernard Emerson and Catherine Evans-Smith, an Oakland local and a transplant from the UK, take a deep dive into the book of Ruth to help us see how to live with generosity and humility in our neighborhoods.
Dr. King said that 11 o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. Tapestry Church's identity statement says, "We are people of many cultures woven together into the fabric of Oakland to display the beauty of God's story." In this first sermon in the series, Pastor Bernard shares from Acts 2 about what it means for the church to be filled with people of many cultures.
We all grieve. We all lose people we love at some point in our life. What does it mean to truly grieve with hope? What does it look like to grieve as much as we need and yet without despair? In this sermon, Pastor Kyle explores Paul's comforting words to the church in Thessalonica about the resurrection and hopeful grieving.
Jesus has a radical view of forgiveness. Do it every time, no matter how big the hurt, no matter how frequent the slight. He also seems to think we can't be forgiven unless we forgive. How is that possible if forgiveness is a free gift from God? And where do we get the power for this kind of radical forgiveness? Pastor Kyle opens up the parable of the ungrateful servant to answer these questions.
How can someone believe the Church as "holy" today when there has been so much suffering caused by the Church? What does it look like to be a part of genuine Christian community? For answers to these questions and more, listen to Catherine Evans-Smith teach us from John 17.
The Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit is unique among world religions, and assures us that we are never alone. This sermon deals with some of our baggage around the Holy Spirit, who the Holy Spirit is and what his primary mission is in the world, in the church and in your life.
In this sermon, Pastor Bernard reminds us that no matter what we are going through, because Jesus ascended to heaven, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus himself, pleading our case.
What if Jesus never rose from the dead? For Paul, it was a thought experiment that tested foundation of the Christian faith. For some of us, it’s a thought that crosses our doubting minds on a regular basis. In this sermon, we take that question seriously and find that we, and the world, would be completely different.
In this sermon, we learn about how Jesus suffering, death and resurrection took a skeptic like Saul and turned him into the Apostle Paul...and how Jesus can do the same for us too.
In this sermon, we dive into the uniqueness and power of Jesus to overcome the challenges, sufferings, and sin in our lives. We have a Savior that is almost completely like us and almost completely unlike us.
In this third sermon, we discuss how important it is that God is God (all by himself) and how he creates out of the chaos. If there's chaos in your life right now, you might want to hear this.
In this first sermon in our series on the Apostles' Creed, we talk about what it means to believe at all. What does it mean to have a creed and is that only for religious people? What does it really mean to believe in God? What does it look like to have faith?
